Maziar Bahari was among two dozen bloggers and journalists held after vote.

An Iranian-Canadian journalist who was detained in Tehran during
post-election protests has been charged with belonging to a Western-orchestrated
conspiracy to overthrow the clerical regime, according to Iranian media.

Maziar Bahari has a home in Toronto but has lived in Iran for more than a
decade, and worked for Newsweek magazine.

He is one of more than two dozen journalists and bloggers seized in a sweep
of suspected opponents of the government, which has been battling protests since
it endorsed elections last month widely criticized as fraudulent.

"The spokesperson for the Iranian foreign affairs ministry said that Bahari
was part of a network of U.S. and British-led unrest," said Morteza Abdolalian,
an Iranian-born journalist and blogger who monitors the Iranian media. "They
charged him with working for this network, following his arrest."

There have been unconfirmed reports that Bahari "confessed" during his
detention.

"These arrests follow a pattern," says Abdolalian, who is based in Toronto.

"People are pressured to make a videotaped confession that is written in
advance by the regime."

Canada's department of foreign affairs has issued a note of "grave concern"
to Iran, and demanded immediate consular access to Bahari. But such access is
seldom granted in the case of dual citizens, whom Iran regards as Iranian.

Foreign and Iranian journalists have long been suspected of working for a
Western conspiracy to overthrow the Iranian government – a legacy of a
Western-orchestrated 1953 coup.

Supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have denounced the protesters as
traitors.

Mr. Harper apparently never did have any motivation to defend the rights of
Canadian citizens abroad or at home. Mr. Harper's view of legal rights are that
they are only important as long as they are politically correct, a furthering of
the judge made law or politically realities that flagrantly defy the statutes.
Its just more destruction of the Rule of Law for short term political point
scoring for which Mr. Harper is strongly addicted. see the roscoe research at
the ottwawa mens centre.

The Mr. Mohammadi clan of the Iranian Government must have gone stark raving
mad to arrest Maziar Bahari who has made public to the world press the American
goals of u promoting "democracy" in Islamic countries. The Iranian Government is
becoming increasingly paranoid to the point that they are now shooting
themselves in the foot. Iranians are some of nicest people you can meet anywhere
in the world. The Iranian Government's arrest of one of most respected objective
journalists will not help Iran's problems.